Cambodia suffers 13 percent drop in 11-month rice exports

An employee points to a stack of rice for an order at a rice warehouse in Phnom Penh. (Source: phnompenhpost.com)

Phnom Penh (VNA) - Cambodia's
rice exports fell 13 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2018, according
to a report by the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export Formality
of Cambodia.

The country shipped abroad 497,240
tonnes of the grain in January-November, down from 562,237 tonnes in the same
period last year.

Hun Lak, Vice President of the
Cambodian Rice Federation, attributed the fall in the country’s exports to a
lack of stockpiles during the harvest season and price competition with
neighbouring countries.

He explained that local farmers tend
to sell their raw rice to traders from neighbouring countries for quick cash.

A
total of 78 firms have sold the country's rice to 61 countries and regions
across the world. China is still the top buyer of Cambodian rice, followed by
France, the Netherlands, Poland and Britain, the report said.

Cambodia
produced about 10.5 million tonnes of paddy rice in 2017, up 5.7 percent
year-on-year, according to its Ministry of Agriculture.-VNA